We have a house full of books… real books… love 'em.
Me too, but they do take up a lot of room.
@AngelaR "The recent kindles have terrible dictionaries "
Oh dear, I thought that was meant to be one of the things that made them attractive, and it would be good if the dictionary was any good. What a pity.
We’ve recently gained yet another bookcase and also resorted to storing many in the attic…
A couple of boxes are ready to give away (only the books we can bear to part with…)
Some books have gone to the small library in our village, and been enthusiastically received… much to my amazement.
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I have some older books - nothing special, but slightly odd scifi stuff - that would be hard to replace. Some Harry Harrison has made it onto e-readers, but there’s still something special about turning the yellowed pages. We have an A E Van Vogt that was given as a Christmas present when I was a teenager, and I very much regret that my mother cleared out my Biggles collection after I moved out, including books that had belonged to my grandfather…
Biggles! my fave… also The Saint
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I am the same with the E E Doc Smith Lensman series, E E Doc Smith/ Stephen Goldin Family D’Alembert series and Saul Dunn Steeleye series.
I have had the books for 43 years and still read them yearly.
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I find these books fascinating because they describe an era gone by. In the case of Biggles obviously it’s a world that once was and is no more, but one to which I still feel connected.
The Lensman books give a snapshot of a world that also once was - a society embracing militarisation, particularly evident in US WWII films - and is also no more, yet portrayed as a future world. I appreciate these books for the description and insights of a present world. After a bit, unfortunately I found these DID lack imagination, and there’s only so much one can take of ravening beams, impossible tech and heroic-boy-meets-beautiful-girl before you realise you read the same story last time. 
I did read one book from The Family D’Alembert series, but haven’t yet found the steeleye series.
If you like older hardcore scifi then there are the excellent ‘megapack’ compilation series available on Kindle (I know :p) typically under £1 that have many good short and some mid-length stories from the 1940s to the 2000s.
The caves of steel and The naked sun from the Robot Series by Asimov are another two favourites.
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I’ve always been an Asimov fan, though his Foundation series got stretched a little thin by the time he finished writing.
Another favourite author is ‘Cordwainer Smith’ who paints with a slightly unsettling brush a dystopian future of space travel and the divergence of the human race, all controlled by the instrumentality. It reads a little like Philip K Dick, but the two men could hardly be more different in background.
Biggles flies undone was a cracker.
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I was a voracious reader from very early on. After I worked my way through the Secret Seven, the Famous Five and the Adventure books (
, The Naughtiest Girl in the School and Mallory Towers borrowed from the girl next door) and Biggles, I moved on the Agatha Christie, Lesley Charteris and John Creasy with a bit of John Buchan thrown in. All washed down with a good dollop of Hergé. What I didn’t buy, I borrowed from our local library on my weekly visits. I remember I’d already read three or four Mary Poppins books before the film came out when I was 11.
My late wife also devoured books, probably 50/50 English and French. Her French was excellent (which made me rather lazy)l Our daughter inherited our love of reading and despite her busy schedule and her professional reading load she’ll still get through a novel a week.
Has anybody read any of this series? They use original illustrations inside and make great presents.
I forgot Richmal Crompton and William and Billy Bunter of course.
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And of the (perceived) threats which existed at that time, too.
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Me too. And Swallows & Amazons (which my wife is now enjoying).
I’me re-reading a load of old green Penguins at the moment.
And all the others - I had the entire set. 